America is in need of some leadership–at least according to Mallory Hagan.

Hagan is the Democratic candidate for Alabama’s 3rd district in their upcoming House elections, but most people know her as the former Miss America. Hagan was crowned Miss America in 2013 as Miss New York 2012, but says the title burdened her with certain stereotypes that affected her political life.

“Every day, when I go and speak to community members and I present myself on national media, I make sure I combat that stereotype from every angle,” Hagan said. “I’m very conscious of the things I say and how I say them and what I potentially am playing into.”

The year after the crowning, Hagen spent time lobbying congress for the prevention and awareness of child sexual abuse. She was part of a team that helped restore funding to child advocacy centers and was a lobbyist for Erin’s Law, which would require public schools to implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program.

“People on both sides of the aisle are excited to have someone they can believe in to really do what it is that they say they’re going to do, to actually represent them and listen to them and be a fresh face in Washington,” Hagan said.

When initially approached by people in her community and district, Hagen was reluctant to run for any office; however, that soon changed after being an anchor for WLTZ-TV in Georgia and Alabama and experienced daily news first hand.

“We are in dire need of people in our country whom our children can look up to,” Hagan said. “I just don’t think we have that right now.”

She said the small number of young women serving in congress, coupled with this need for leadership, made her decide that now was the time to run.

The district Hagan is hoping to represent has historically voted Republican. In the 2016 election, the district elected Trump by 33 points, 5.3 points over the statewide 27.7 point margin. During the special election for senator in 2017, only five of the 13 counties in her district voted for Democratic candidate Doug Jones, who narrowly defeated Roy Moore by a margin of 1.5 points. Her opponent is Mike Rogers, the incumbent Republican representative who has represented the third district since 2003.

“I have a pretty solid plan of action and I am excited and I’m energized, and so is the Democratic Party, which is something we haven’t seen in this state in several decades,” Hagan said. “People are ready to see change happen and people are excited about the candidates we have on the democratic party and so I’m not concerned, I’m thrilled.”

Hagan’s platform is focused on leadership in order to reach the supporters of two politicians known for their misogynistic remarks, Moore and Trump. She says she knows women who voted for Trump and support his policy views, but don’t support his crass comments or his leadership style. She often contextualizes his statements by associating his speech with things parents wouldn’t allow their children to say.

“How would you feel about that, and if it’s not something that you would allow your son or daughter to say to you, why are we not holding our president to that same standard?” Hagan said. “Why are we not holding our representatives to those same standards?”

As a former Miss America winner and a woman, Hagen experiences misogyny and patriarchy on a consistent basis. The most notable examples during the campaign have been questions posed to her about her marital status and why she does not have children.

“To me, that is an entirely irrelevant question to the concept of my being qualified to run for office,” Hagan said.

Her office has also received criticism about the outfits and shoes she wears.

“People call my campaign manager and say, ‘Those shoes won’t fly in blank county,’ or, ‘That dress was too tight for that event.’ Just stuff like that where I sort of play into these expectations of what a women should be and how she should dress,” Hagan said. “Just things that men definitely don’t have to deal with on the campaign trail.”

Hagan made national headlines in 2017 after being part of the movement to suspend the CEO of Miss America, Sam Haskell, after discovering emails from Haskell that included derogatory comments about her body and other former Miss Americas.

Beyond this criticism, Hagan is preparing for her potential new job on Capitol Hill. Health care and campaign reform are the main issues she wants to address if elected. Hagan believes the current healthcare system is failing many people. US News and World Report reported Alabama had the highest infant mortality rate since 2008 in 2017. Hagan wants to address this alarming statistic, as well as maternal mortality rates in Alabama.

“Many people are very worried about the future of our healthcare system, so that’s what’s important to me,” Hagan said.

Hagan was recently endorsed by End Citizens United, a Political Action Committee funded by grassroots donors. She hopes to see campaign finance reform so candidates use their energy to gain votes instead of simply raising a large amount of money for advertising. After the victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Hagan is hoping this signifies a shift in how people run for office.

“What we need from our representatives are people who are willing to get out and work,” Hagan said. “Alexandria did that work and that’s what I’ve been doing, too.”

Hagan is also focused on bringing industries to Alabama, because she believes there’s a lot of opportunity in the state.

“I think that’s a huge, huge way for us to improve our quality of life and our education system and also, of course, bring in jobs,” Hagan said.

Regardless of whether Hagan wins in November, she is planning to involve herself with IGNITE. IGNITE is an organization that aims to include high school seniors and college-aged women engaged political process. The organization is currently headquartered in Huntsville, AL.

“I look forward to being a part of working with them on that so that we have more young women in Alabama engaged and politically active,” Hagan said.

Virginia voters stood up to Donald Trump and the Republican Party in November with the Democrats taking a clean sweep of the statewide elections. Alabama, on the other hand, was not looking to follow the same path yesterday. Doug Jones (D) was facing Roy Moore (R) for the United States Senators’ seat left open by now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Roy Moore was the clear favorite over Jones in the Republican stranglehold of Alabama. The last time they elected a Democratic Senator was 1992, and then-candidate Trump obliterated Clinton in 2016 with a spread of +28.

It appeared that this wouldn’t even be a race to watch, that is until we learned that Roy Moore repeatedly tried to seduce underage girls when he was in his 30s – one of those girls being 14 years old. Republican leaders eventually pulled their support, subsequently asking Moore to step down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) discussed not seating Moore if he won and the Ethics Committee investigation Moore would face. But Moore never budged and eventually, Trump endorsed Moore. Trump himself is facing accusations of sexual misconduct from 19 women – so is anyone surprised that he would still support a predator like Moore?

Failed Senate Candidate, Roy Moore

After Trump’s public support, Republicans began to reverse their position and threw support back behind Moore. The Republican National Committee decided to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Alabama GOP after initially refusing to give him any additional contributions or support. The return of major Republican players made Moore the contender that Democrats feared. Republicans decided that having a Republican vote in the Senate was more important than denouncing a pedophile and refusing him a seat.

Trump endorsed Moore for the final time on the morning of the election, when he tweeted:

The people of Alabama will do the right thing. Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL. Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet. Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!

The Associated Press eventually called the race at 10:23 pm for the Democrat, Doug Jones. Why – when the leaders of his party repeatedly asked Moore to step down –would Trump stump for the embattled candidate? Trump has been accused by at least 19 women of sexual harassment. He faced that criticism heavily in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

The tidal wave of firings and resignation letters soon followed. Hosts of morning shows had to address the nation just hours after finding out their coworker and friend lost their job due to sexual improprieties. The wave began in the entertainment industry and private sector, but the waters started to shift towards D.C.

Multiple members of Congress have resigned, or are facing an Ethics Committee. Al Franken (D) resigned his seat in the Senate – John Conyers (D) and Trent Franks (R) have surrendered their seats in the House. Multiple other House members are facing accusations on their own and more accusations are expected. But Roy Moore was still fighting – his campaign was still alive – and he had an actual shot at winning.

That is until Alabama voted to send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in 25 years. Enough people in Alabama believed that party affiliations don’t matter – being a moral and respectable human does. While the president can overlook all of the accusations made against Moore, the American people won’t allow it. Virginian’s displayed the same notion – just in more drastic contrast this November – when they refused to support the fear-mongering and race-baiting of Ed Gillespie’s campaign – one that was taken right out of Trump’s playbook.

Doug Jones, Senator from Alabama

The saving grace for the Democrats in this election was that if Moore would have won – they would have stuck him to every single Republican in the 2018 midterms. That, along with the rhetoric coming out of D.C. being so divisive and disruptive, would have given the Democrats something of a consolation prize. But in 2017, good people continue to prosper – and gain a voice in a world that is full of voices from every part of the spectrum – while questionable characters sputter and fail to see any real success.

“CBS This Morning” anchor Charlie Rose, NPR news chief Michael Oreskes, New York Times political reporter Glenn Thrush, political analyst Mark Halperin, and now “Today Show” host Matt Lauer have all lost their job or been suspended due to sexual harassment claims.

President Donald Trump (R), Senator Al Franken (D), Representative John Conyers (D), and Senate-hopeful Roy Moore (R) are all facing credible accusations on their own– but continue to keep their jobs.

Roy Moore

Rep. Conyers is facing pressure from Democratic leadership behind closed doors, but he continues to vigorously deny the accusations – although he admitted to paying a former staffer with taxpayer money after she accused him of sexual harassment. On Thursday, one of Conyers’ accusers, Marion Brown, went on the Today Show to discuss the allegations. She said he “violated her body” and frequently propositioned her for sex.

Almost every Republican leader in government – with the exception of their leader, Trump – has denounced Moore for pursuing underage girls. However, he still remains active on the campaign trail and shows no sign of bowing out. Franken has apologized for his mistakes after photos surfaced of him groping a woman while she was sleeping. However, he shows no signs that he believes he should resign. Trump was recorded on tape saying that he grabs women by the “pu**y” because he is famous and they let him do it. The other participant in that tape, Billy Bush, was fired by NBC News for what he contributed to that tape.

Sixteen women have now accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. He was elected President of the United States within a few months of this information coming to light, while at the same time making Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct a constant topic of coverage during the election.

President Trump

Washington has long had a history of politicians playing sexual scandal situations close to the vest. The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 made that much easier for them. Originally, it was intended to force members of Congress to be held to the same standards as the rest of the professional world. Instead, it created a way for sexual harassment cases to be settled using taxpayer money – with the process and participants of the settlement being kept a complete secret. Not to mention the first step that an accuser takes under this act after is to take a 90-day “mandatory dispute resolution process.” Which essentially is a “cooling off” period where the accuser has to continue to work and interact with the accused.

17 million dollars in taxpayer-funded settlements have occurred under this resolution since 1997. The Office of Compliance handles these funds. They say that the fund covers most Capitol Hill employers, so not all of these funds are used for lawmakers’ transgressions.

This is drastically different than the process that we have witnessed taking place in the private sector. Matt Lauer’s employers were notified of a complaint against him on Monday night, and he was released from his position at NBC less than 48 hours later. Later on Wednesday, we learned from Variety, who claimed to have been working on this story for months, that Lauer had been committing inappropriate acts for years. From having a button on his desk to lock his office door, to gifting a coworker a sex toy and letting her know how he wanted to use it with her. Louis C.K.’s film company canceled his next movie premiere and multiple media companies cut ties with him after his transgressions hit the news. CBS, Bloomberg, and PBS released Charlie Rose within a day of his accusations going public.

Matt Lauer

Yet the disparities between politicians and media personalities continue to persist, even with an announcement by Northern Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed an anti-harassment resolution that the Congresswoman introduced. The bill requires Representatives to participate in yearly sexual harassment training.

“There is no room for sexual harassment in the workplace and we must have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, especially in Congress,” said Comstock. “This legislation we passed here today is a strong first step in fundamentally reforming how we address the insidious problem of sexual harassment in the workplace and committing to a healthy, safe working environment free from sexual harassment.”

This is surely a step in the right direction, but forcing members to participate in a yearly training does very little to address the actual harassment that has occurred. These resolutions also don’t address the biggest possible offender of all – the President.

The media, tech moguls, Hollywood producers, comedians, and athletes are typically forced to pay for their transgressions themselves. If not with their own funds, it’s the employers they worked for that enabled their behavior. This is also usually accompanied by a pink slip from that enabler.

Politicians have been using taxpayer money to pay off their accusers under a code of silence enacted by themselves, or their predecessors for over 20 years. As a result, lawmaker’s are allowed to push their moral beliefs and judgment’s into our law books – but they don’t hold themselves accountable to that same standard. Why should citizens trust them to police themselves? Citizens should be able to trust that the individuals elected to run our country truly have the interests and safety of their citizens at heart. That is getting harder and harder to believe, more so since the revelations that they will cover up the mistreatment of women to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The citizens that are being publicly shamed and losing their jobs deserve every ounce of this.

So the question remains, why aren’t our elected leaders receiving the same ridicule and justice?